National Gallery of Canada
Caught in the Act: The Viewer as Performer
About the Exhibition - About the Artists
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Mowry Baden
Mowry Baden expects viewers to interact with his sculptures and designs them with the intention of creating a kinesthetic experience between the audience and his work. By promoting the viewer’s awareness of his or her own bodily movement, his works investigate different forms of sensory perception and encourage an entirely unique, physical encounter with each individual. Known for his “envelope spaces” that serve to immerse the spectator and alter their sense of perceptual awareness, Baden is also interested in the way in which, through their participation, the viewer shifts roles from passive visitor to active subject. In fact, he considers this transformation an integral part of the completion of each work. Born in 1936 in Los Angeles, California, Baden received his MA in 1965 from Stanford University and his BA in 1958 from Pomona College. He taught extensively throughout the United States and Canada, where his students included Kim Adams and Chris Burden among others, before settling in Victoria, BC in 1975, when he began his tenure at the University of Victoria and where he is currently Professor Emeritus. Baden has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, a host of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, and was honoured with the Governor General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts in 2006.
He has been the subject of a number of solo exhibitions, including at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (2006), the Blackwood Gallery, the University of Toronto (2000) and the Vancouver Art Gallery (1972). His works have been collected by these galleries, as well as the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal and MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles.
Rebecca Belmore
Rebecca Belmore (b. 1960 Upsala, Ontario) graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1987, since which time she has gained national and international recognition for her multidisciplinary work. An Aboriginal artist of Anishnabe descent, Belmore’s practice often addresses aspects of Indigenous experience in Canada, exploring political and personal histories, as well as aspects of place and identity. Aware of the implications of collective creation and reception of works of art, Belmore’s work – whether in sculpture, performance, installation, video or photography – serves as an exemplary model of socially-engaged art practice. Belmore represented Canada at the 2005 Venice Biennale with her piece Fountain and her work has been included in a number of other solo exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery (2008), the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon (2007), the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery, Vancouver (2002), the Blackwood Gallery, Toronto (2001) and the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (1993). The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau; the Walter Philips Gallery, Banff; and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa each hold her work. She currently lives and works in Vancouver, BC.
BGL
Jasmin Bilodeau (b. 1973, Lac-Mégantic, QC), Sébastien Giguère (b. 1972, Arthabaska, QC) and Nicolas Laverdière (b. 1972, Quebec City, QC) met at Université Laval while completing their Bachelor of Fine Arts and since 1996 have worked collectively out of Quebec City under the acronym BGL. The trio has become widely known for their sculptural and often self-referential installations that engulf and transform the gallery into a space of exploration and experimentation. While their visual vocabulary is drawn from contemporary consumer culture, BGL’s handmade workmanship and use of humble materials – wood, found objects and cardboard – recalls an artisanal tradition that is connected to vernacular or folk art. Through this unexpected juxtaposition of craft and commerce, BGL playfully acknowledges the nostalgia of memory while simultaneously offering a subversive critique of the social and environmental effects of North American (over)consumption. BGL’s work has been exhibited and performed in galleries, museums and public spaces throughout Canada and Europe, including Nuit Blanche, Toronto (2008), Montreal Biennale (2007), Havana Biennale, Cuba (2006), Mercer Union, Toronto (2005), Galerie de l’É.N.A.C., Toulouse, France (2004) and the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (2001–2002). In 2007, they were awarded the Canada Council Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award for Visual Art, and were also the recipients of the Exhibition and Installation Design Award from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries and shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2006. Their works are held by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Max Dean and Raffaello D’Andrea
The viewer’s involvement in his work has become a signature aspect of Max Dean’s œuvre; he creates sculptural pieces that actively encourage a participatory and playful interaction between the works and a (possibly) unsuspecting audience. Normally working in collaboration with an engineer, he outfits seemingly commonplace objects – wooden chairs, tables, television sets – with robotic technology and cutting-edge software that respond to, and in fact rely on, the viewers’ presence or intervention. His partnership with Raffaello D’Andrea (b. 1967, Pordenone, Italy), currently a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, began in 1999. D’Andrea’s specialization in Autonomous Systems – technologies that are capable of interacting independently with the real world – greatly aided in the realization of The Table (1984-2001) and The Robotic Chair (2006). Dean’s work ultimately bends the conventions of gallery etiquette, and calls into question issues of choice and consequence, trust, and the potentialities of interfacing technology. Born in 1949 in Leeds, UK, he received his BA in art history from the University of British Columbia in 1971. Currently based in Toronto, Dean has participated in two Venice Biennales (1999, 2001) and has shown his work at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2008), the Zentrum fur Kunst un Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany (2002–2003) and the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (2000). His work is included in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto; the Vancouver Art Gallery; and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
Geoffrey Farmer
Geoffrey Farmer is interested in processes of theatricality – of storytelling, staging, improvisation, and the fabrication of reality. Born in 1967 on Eagle Island, BC and later based in Vancouver, Farmer was influenced early on by the ubiquity of the film industry in that city and his resulting works exist between prop and art object. He has developed an increasingly research- and process-based approach to art making, creating elaborate sculptures and installations that revolve around a narrative scripted by the artist and subsequently transform and activate both the gallery space and its visitors. Consistently in a state of flux or becoming, Farmer’s works often find their basis in a found object, memory or dream and blur the lines between experience and imagination. Farmer attended the San Francisco Art Institute (1991–1992) and later graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1993. He participated in the Sydney Biennale in 2008, and has had solo exhibitions at the Witte de With, Rotterdam (2008), The Drawing Room, London, UK (2008), the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (2007), The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2005), the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2000), and the Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver (2001, 2004). His work has been shown in group exhibitions throughout North America and Europe, and is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Massimo Guerrera
Massimo Guerrera is often described as an originator of relational aesthetics in Quebec. Born in Rome in 1967 and currently based in Montreal, Guerrera’s practice centres on the creation of social situations that encourage interpersonal connections and interactions. Often using the communal eating experience as the impetus for these encounters, his works position human intimacy as the vehicle for aesthetic creativity; he orchestrates a series of open-ended exchanges between himself, friends and gallery-goers that create space for the formation of contemplative and meaningful relationships, and act as a counterbalance to the speed and alienation of contemporary commercial culture. Winner of the 2001 Ozias-Leduc prize for visual artists in Quebec and finalist for the Sobey Art Award in 2004, Guerrera has exhibited his work in a number of solo exhibitions including at the Darling Foundry, Montreal (2008), Clint Roenisch Gallery, Toronto (2007), the Verge Gallery, Vancouver (2004), Mercer Union, Toronto (2003), and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (2002). He has also participated in further exhibitions White Columns, New York City (2004) and the Montreal Biennale (2000). His work has been collected by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and numerous private and corporate collections in Canada and Europe.
Glen Johnson
Persiflage is defined as “frivolous or bantering talk; a frivolous manner of treating any subject, whether serious or otherwise”; it is also the title of a blog by author and performance artist Glen Johnson (b. 1961, Winnipeg). www.persiflage.ca is an online playground where the Winnipeg-based wordsmith, under the pseudonym Hugh Briss, tackles a cornucopia of subjects from politics to relationships to personal hygiene in an irreverant, facetious and often subversive manner. Featuring guest columnists, classified ads and an ongoing series of short stories, Persiflage is also used to promote the independent arts scene in Winnipeg, within which Johnson has been highly involved. Since graduating from the University of Winnipeg with a BA in classics in 1993, he has produced a large body of writing that has been distributed in the form of brochures, novellas, and insertions within various catalogues and books. His performances, invariably involving text, and that take the form of storytelling segments or talks accompanied by projected images, have been performed at Gallery 1C03, Winnipeg (2007), Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax (2005), Platform Gallery, Winnipeg (2005), aceartinc., Winnipeg (2005, 2003) and The Annex, Winnipeg (2004).
Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins
The work of Toronto-based duo Jennifer Marman (b. 1965, Toronto) and Daniel Borins (b. 1974, Toronto) merges commercial and industrial design with sardonic, and at times ambiguous, references to art history, politics and pop culture. Unapologetic in their appropriations, Marman and Borins have created large format and public sculptures, electronic art and mixed media installations that speak against current issues of globalization and capitalism, while simultaneously deconstructing the history and aims of politically-motivated art. The artists embrace visual puns, interactivity and nonconformism and have become known for works that alternate between the brazenly comedic and wryly poetic. Prior to studying at the Ontario College of Art and Design where they graduated in 2001, Marman received a BA in philosophy from the University of Western Ontario and Borins completed a BA in art history from McGill University. Since then, the duo has been exhibiting their work both in Canada and internationally, including at TPW Gallery, Toronto (2008), Art Santa Fe (2008, 2005), Nuit Blanche, Toronto (2007), and the Art Gallery of Hamilton (2004). In 2006, they completed a commission for the Toronto Sculpture Garden. Marman and Borins have received various awards and grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, as well as the Ontario and Toronto Arts Councils and their work is held in several public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Rodney LaTourelle
Currently based in Berlin, Rodney LaTourelle was born in Winnipeg in 1965. Following his studies at the University of Manitoba, where he received his Bachelor of Architecture in Environmental Studies in 1988 and his MA in Landscape Architecture in 1996, his practice draws simultaneously from the fields of art and architecture. LaTourelle’s fundamental interest lies in the affective relationship between colour, spatial arrangements, and the viewer’s experience. He constructs precisely painted, technicolour environments into which the audience is invited to adventure. Playing with the effects of natural and artificial light, as well as a multitude of chromatic shifts throughout his installations, he seeks to create an embodied experience for his audience: one that provokes both visceral and emotional connections with his work. LaTourelle has worked as a designer, landscape architect, and curator and was a Fellow in the architecture program of the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany in 2003–2004. He writes frequently for artists’ catalogues, and is a regular correspondent for Border Crossings and C Magazine. His work has been exhibited at the ON Gallery, Poznan, Poland (2006), the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany (2004), SKC, Belgrade, Serbia (2004), Contemporary Art Forum, Kitchener (2004), and PlugIn ICA, Winnipeg (2003). He has received numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, as well as the Winnipeg and Manitoba Arts Councils.
Kent Monkman
Kent Monkman (b. 1965, St. Mary’s) is a filmmaker, painter, performance, and installation artist. Raised in Winnipeg and currently based in Toronto, he is of Swampy Cree and English/Irish descent and is a member of the Fisher River Band in Northern Manitoba. He studied at the Canadian Screen Training Institute (2001), Sundance Institute, Los Angeles (1998), The Banff Centre for the Arts (1992) and Sheridan College (1986). Throughout his practice, Monkman works to subvert North American colonial and art historical narratives that have traditionally excluded an Aboriginal perspective. His works pun on the way nineteenth-century artists often depicted the “New” World as conforming to their own expectations and values, while simultaneously omitting complex layers of Aboriginal history, culture and sexuality. With the aid of his alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, Monkman inserts his own allegories into the historical mix. Blending fact and fiction, humour and role reversals, he performs a gender and cultural cross-dressing that unseats the authority of documented history and provokes a rethinking of colonial oppression, accepted truths and the intricacy of identity. In 2007, a solo exhibition of his work was mounted by the Art Gallery of Hamilton and toured to the Art Gallery of Victoria, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery; other solo exhibitions include those at the Walter Philips Gallery, Banff (2006) and the Indian Art Centre, Gatineau (2001). His work is held in collections at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina; and the Woodland Cultural Centre, Brantford.
Jana Sterbak
Jana Sterbak was born in 1955 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. She attended Concordia University and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1975 before completing her Masters of Fine Arts at the University of Toronto in 1982. Although her practice varies from performance and sculpture to photography, video and installations; her focus remains on the human body and on the psychological terrain between corporeal freedom and constraint. Addressing themes of power, control, desire and sexuality, many of her works take the form of garment-like constructions, and are designed to either extend or restrict the body in some way. Oscillating between aggressive and seductive, Sterbak’s work is inspired by the physicality of materials, and the emotional experiences they both recall and represent. Her work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at the Musée d´art contemporain de Nîmes, France (2006), the Paleis voor Schoone Kunsten, Brussels (2006), the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (2003), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1998), the Serpentine Gallery, London (1995–1996), the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1993), and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1991). She represented Canada in the Venice Biennale in 2003 with her piece From Here to There. She has been awarded the Chalmers Prize, Arts Council of Ontario (2000) and the Prix Ozias-Leduc, Fondation Émile-Nelligan (1996). Her work is held by the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Sterbak divides her time between Montreal, and Barcelona, Spain.